After consecutive 100-point thrashings, GWS was expected to cop another hiding at the hands of the reigning premiers, yet an undermanned Hawks outfit and slippery MCG conditions combined for a nail-biting crescendo.
The Hawks looked at times to be on the brink of breaking the Giants, but the Sydneysiders responded bravely to each challenge, only to fall short by seven points.
Bolton, who’s replaced Alistair Clarkson while Clarkson recovers from Guillain-Barre syndrome, said he rated the opposition’s performance highly, but was pleased with his side’s ability to grind out the win.
“Although it wasn’t our best game of footy, we’re really pleased that we showed some resilience and toughed it out,” he said.
“I don’t want to take any credit away from GWS though. They put pressure on us and we turned some ball over that I wouldn’t have liked. We went short on a wet day where I would’ve liked us to go a little bit deeper.
“I do want to re-iterate, we did dig deep under some trying conditions.
“They put a lot of pressure on us. We didn’t play the way we liked. We had a few out – that’s never an excuse, but we dug deep when we had to and we got the result,” he said.
Off the back of two consecutive losses, Hawthorn would have fallen outside the top four had it lost on Sunday, and with mounting casualties, the Hawks need to muster as many wins as they can while they find themselves without their first choice side.
Jordan Lewis and Ben Stratton joined the likes of Sam Mitchell, Cyril Rioli, Brian Lake, Josh Gibson and Ben McEvoy on the sidelines, but Lewis is expected back in Round 12.
“We went into this game knowing they’d been challenged internally. Leon Cameron is a quality coach – I know him well. He looked to take the game on and he got us out the back a few times,” said Bolton.
“We knew there’d be a fight.”
“[We showed] good resilience. Good spirit.”
Bolton was noticeably excited in the aftermath, both because of the win and the fact he’s been quickly thrown in the deep end as a senior coach.
“Different – that’s the best way to describe it,” he said.
“I look at this week as a development opportunity.”
“How good is it to coach your own side?”
“I thought I gave it [coaching] my best. I’ll look back and see what I can change, but time and hindsight tells you that. Sometimes you’ve just got to go back to the tape and look at the decisions we made.”
“We’ll look at the game and say ‘Geez we did that well, but that decision wasn’t great’. That’s what I’m so happy about being in the position – I’m going to learn.”
Bolton will remain at the helm for at least another month, with Hawks CEO Stuart Fox announcing Alistair Clarkson wouldn’t coach for a minimum of four weeks, despite having been discharged from hospital.